Ski

Thanks, 'Dude...I'll forever be avenging his evil deeds. The Blue race dpt did a first rate job. You and 'Mom should make your way down some time. It sucks that the pacesetters got their HC's at Roundtop in a rainstorm. The girl that paceset has an official HC of 22, but she's more like a 14 at most. A lot of bronze and no medals for people at Blue this season.

Results are posted...Jeff beat all, including the pacesetter.: http://www.nastar.com/index.jsp?pagename=r...44034&year=2006 My evil arch enemy was there...the only person I care to beat. And I did This time...

Bode has skied K2, Fischer, Rossi, and now Atomic. Every ski he was on he said the following: "These are the best skis I've ever been on. The designers take my input and produce a custom ski for me. It's a great, winning relationship." It's his job to say exactly that, about skis he endorses. But Bode used to blast K2's whenever he crashed. He used to openly blame the skis and K2 cringed every time. He's gotten a lot smarter since then, as witnessed by his early pre-release problems with Rossi. Bode skis on gear for whatever manufacturer will pay him the most. He believes in himself, not just gear. There was a bidding war for Bode two years ago. That's why he's on Atomics.

Read the handbook. J4's race for derbies and post season. They can earn invitations to a big race in NH. Second year J3's can begin their point profiles in certain races. J4's can't possible have USSA points because they don't race on the same type of courses. If you don't like it quit and start your own ski circuit. Like Bode!

"He face planted on a trick on a hit that he had done many times as part of his last run. He got a sled ride. He is okay as eveidenced by his going to trampoline class after I told him no."----Ha, yeah, three days later. Hahahaha. And I don't hurl Ty down the course...I follow her through the start wand and stay behind her through the course FOR SAFETY REASONS. She may be five, but she's the smallest in her class. She weighs 35 lbs and is 42" tall. She is TINY. If she crashes, I pick her up. The Mountain Dew crew set the timing posts too close together. I just couldn't snow plow behind her through it enough and I knocked her over. I also didn't feel it was safe to send her down alone, then HOPE she cleared out of the starting area. I didn't take Ty to the race to win; I took her their to do something fun with her dad. And I only planned to race if I was sure it would be safe for her---which it wasn't. And your looking for advice on J4 race day? Why? You wouldn't listen.

IDK, probably because Elan and Kneissl made the first shaped ski. Snowboard design and Prince tennis raquets had more to do with shaped ski revolution than Bode. Bode's book apparently wasn't fact-checked very well.

Ha, no Doug, not a bunch of runs. I'm going to try and mimmick a race day for me...trying to get ready for the weekend races. Get back to my routine. I warm up slow, doing turn drills. Do what you want, but I wouldn't suggest buying a speed suit for NASTAR. The 1 second savings is a speed suit vs. a coat. It's barely a couple of tenths if you have something on that's not bulky.

You can often grab a used speed suit for $150 or so. They are hard to find in mid-season, though. A decent new suit is generally a little under $300. And you do want the slightly more expensive GS suit as opposed to the non-padded DH suit. Try reliableracing.com first. And I'll be there tonight racing...definitely in the shadows, though. 5 hours to the SHOW!!!!

I'll try to do it simply...I haven't tried explaining it in a long time, so I may miss some stuff. Say you are just starting out as a USSA racer and are 15 yrs old, which is a J2. That's really where competitive racing begins. You enter a race and are given a bib number that puts you at the end of the line. The earlier you start, the better the course is, so you are the most disadvantaged spot. Remember when 'Dude was "chasing points" by going to race in NY earlier in December? That was him trying to earn lower points, because the lower your points, the lower your bib number is---or starting number. The top racers all have a point "profile". That's their "numbers". It's the average of their two best races in each dicipline. So in any given race, you take the top racers and how they finished in that race. It's better to have fast racers in your race, because every race has a "Race Penalty" and if you are in a race with the best, then the penalty that is applied is lower. Say you are a golfer and Tiger Woods is playing. It gives you a chance to be close to Tiger Woods. If the top racers all have 30 points coming in, then if you beat them all and win the race, you have a chance of coming away from a race with 30 points. So it doesn't matter what place you finish in a race. It matters how close your time was to the fastest skiers. Here it is summed up: Your points that you earn that day are the race points you earned that day by how close you are to the winning time PLUS the penalty points applied to that race, which is calculated by how well the top racers coming into it finished. If all the top racers fall, it's a bad thing. The race penalty number goes up. I'd guess that a Montana race would have about a 40 point penalty (as opposed to a 100 point penalty in PA). Siblet would then have had about 55 race points to earn that 95. If she'd have won the race, she'd have 40 points...if she was last she'd probably have had close to 300 points.

You disparage Ridge's coaches to rile me up? You might want another hobby, Rob. And I worry about any situation where children that suffer concussions are taken to a jaring physical activity later that night because "they wanted to go."

I was pretty much just generalizing, Think, and offering fluoro to anyone that wants it. It's just my own personal philosophy, but if you compete in any sport, it's up to you to come to the event with whatever gear you have that day and NEVER use gear as an excuse. It's much cooler to win as the underdog on gear that is inferior to someone else's. Since Rob knows Bode so well, he can probably tell you that when Bode was a junior racer, he skied on K2 Four's, which were NOT considered race skis. He won Junior Olympics on them, coming from nowhere, then continued on them in early WC races. It made K2 Four's one of the most famous skis of all time. 6 hours to the SHOW!!!!

So you just continuously "accidentally" trash the USSA coaches, programs, and methods? I just can't imagine worse sportsmanship than calling your teammates and coaches negative things in a public forum, such as to the press or on public MB's. In that one aspect, you and Bode are the same. Is that your goal? To take Bode's worst quality and copy it on a small scale? That's very odd, Rob.

Wow, I remember...and even though ski racing isn't a team sport, the girls got better because of each other. But, anyway, yes, Sib's dead on with every point.

It sucks that mountains don't have free gates for skiers and snowboarders. They are cheaper to maintain than terrain parks, yet we have to pay extra to have them set up for just a few hours a week. Imagine having to pay $10 extra every time you wanted unlimited runs through a halfpipe for all of two hours a day?

Doug's starting to crack! Hang in there, bud! 20 hours to the SHOW!!!

Bode is a non-conformist because he wore sandals to a prom? Or because he threatens to leave the World Cup and race against himself? Sorry, but Bode is a CVA product and then a product of USSA coaching. And, btw, he's in second place in the overall, behind Rahlves. And right now, his team thinks he's a jerk for calling them sh*tty names for not supporting his strange stance that there shouldn't be drug testing. And Bode is chasing teammate Teg Ligety, who is currently one of the top World Cup slalom skiers. So now Ridge doesn't want to race? Great that you are going to support him giving it his all for a month. I sure hope he succeeds in spite of you and your attitude. Rob, name a high school sport where you don't have tough and often times less-than-thrilling practices? I don't believe it that you ever played a high school or college sport. No way.

Agreed, but all females are strongly encouraged to wear a speed suit for NASTAR. And, yes, a race course changes constantly. First tracks are slow, then it peaks as the track slickens, then it gets slower as it ruts. Personally, I love an early course, despite it being relatively slow.

BTW, it is on the Blue calendar: January 5, 12, 19 & 26 *Coors Light Thirsty Thursday *Nastar Races 6:30 p.m. - 8:30 p.m.

IDK, Sib...I think every kid is different. I played soccer and baseball since I was 6 and to even consider burning out? I'm still playing softball (uggg, no baseball leagues around here) and love coaching soccer. When parents crack the whip and create the wrong atmosphere for race kids, then yes, the kids will get sick of it. Racing is cold and often lonely---it almost begs for them to quit; there are often more reasons to quit than to stay. Kids need a certain inner strength, depth of character, and sense of path...in short, kids burn out because of their parents. Other's, like Siblet, will flourish in skiing and in other life ventures. Siblet Top 5 and Top 10!!!!!

If your jacket is bulky and catches a lot of wind, then of course. But just drop your jacket and ski in a turtleneck, or whatever, and the time difference is minimal on a little course like BC. My point is that getting hung up on fluoro and speed suits as opposed to line and turns is wrong. Also, if I told a newbie racer that he/she would ski faster wearing a speed suit, then guess what? They'd ski faster. If I told the same newbie that a chicken suit would shave a second off their time, guess what? It would. There are so many more important things than speed suits and waxes. Make sure your edges are tuned and your bases have a decent wax. Drop your jacket. Make good turns and keep a high line. That's my advice for NASTAR.

24 hours to the SHOW!!!!

After a long and painful delve into the depths of my race history mind, I have come up with the number of athletes who have scored World Cup points without having been in a state or country program.... 0. The route to greatness comes from learning from the best. But you want more? My all time favorite ski racer is Marc Girardelli. He was an Austrian, but wanted his dad to be his coach. So he quit the Austrian ski team, declared himself a Luxembourg citizen and skied under their flag to huge World Cup success. Have you prepared yourself to be a World Cup level coach, Rob? If so, then ROCK ON! Bevel at six degrees and set some radical double flush on those double diamonds CB allows you to close. But you may need something closer...how about someone you met? Remember Kistina Koznick, the US Ski Teamer at NASTAR? She grew up in the USSA, but after a few years on the US SKI Team, she started sleeping with her coach, Dan Strip. When he was fired, she threw a fit and threatened to quit. The US Ski Team said bite me. So she quit the year before the SLC Olympics. She had to fundraise $100,000 to travel the WC circuit, then competed at the Olympics. Her experiment as a loner was this: complete failure. She promised to hold up a flag with the names of all the people that gave her money. She finished DFL. She apologized and was accepted back on the US Ski Team, under the Team's conditions and rules. We're here to help, Rob. We'd love to see Ridge win at all the levels through his career. But teaching him to be disrespectful, like he was to me at JF, isn't the least bit helpful.

First off, good turns beat speed suits and fluoro any day. Fluoro only lasts for the first few gates, so picture this: a bad skier being pushed out of the start; his poor technique will only be amplified. You guys want some? If you think it'll help, I'll have a film cannister for each racer, including Think. You just need to bring your own piece of cork to rub it in. So grab a bottle of Cold Duck and get drinkin'. Under a pseudonym, Atomic Jeff ran a 12 at Bear Creek and a 16 handicap at Montage. That put him the 7th fastest 17-21 yr old male in PA. For NASTAR.

Ha, I wasn't reading "deathmatch" into Poc's post... Just 43 1/2 hrs. to the show... Wonder when the nerves will start to show...